SIME's Ola Ahlvarsson at Google Zeitgeist

Writing live from Google Zeitgeist:

Zeitgeist is Google’s think tank for 300 selected CEOs, visionaries, entrepreneurs and leaders from different walks of life and parts of the world. It is held at the luxurious The Grove country club outside London and the purpose is (to quote queen Rania of Jordan) “to put a finger on the issues of the time.”

The morning started out unexpectedly with an unannounced keynote by the UK prime minister Gordon Brown. I must say that I was impressed by his strong will to champion a international, open and increasingly digital way of doing business, changing opinion and regulation. Some of the key take aways where that in an increasingly global economy we do not have to fear low cost countries in the west and try to build trade barriers, on the contrary he sees increasing opportunities in creative industries and in moving up the production value chain in the west. He also pointed out that there is a clear need for international institutions that can better mirror the development of an international world where local legislators cannot have the right impact or insights. He sees the internet industry as a role model and thought leader in how the world must develop in terms of breaking down traditional boundaries in organisations as well as between countries and cultures. He repeatedly advised regulators to have a “soft touch” and try to let entrepreneurs and change makers lead the way to change and codes of conduct. He also pointed out the benefits the industry has reaped from openness and non protectionism and that we have a responsibility to carry that flag. As far as political systems he thinks that the autocracy of a few elected and their experts will be challenged by the wisdom of the crowds as more and more people can and will voice opinions on line. Not only all the e petitions that come to downing street but also a global agenda that is being driven against global problems by people everywhere where the Internet is creating a pivotal change.

To summarize: just the fact that he speaks at Zeitgeist and that he was so in tune with the evolving digital economy as well as trying to make th UK the naural hub for developing new businesses impressed me a lot.

Zeitgeist: Snap shots and quotes

“Africa adds 8 million mobile phones per month. Most of the subscribers have never heard a ring tone…”

“10% increase in mobile penetration equals 1,8% increase in GDP”

“New mobile services include “delivering babies via phone” “

Queen Rania of Jordania

The next speaker really blew me away, made me fall in love and even start believing in monarchies when queen Rania of Jordania took the stage. After being increasingly tired of being bombarde by misconceptions and sterotype attitudes about the arab world since 9/11 she decided to launch a Youtube campaign where she answers direct questions from all over the world and she is going to post video replies of a set period of time that ends the 12 of august this year. A scary fact today is that almost all Americans that where asked in surveys about what thought about the arab world was negative or vice versa and that most of the feeling where based on fragmented media snap shots rather than first hand experiences. Queen Rania wants to reach out using Youtube to create brides betwenne the arab and the western worlds and to put an end to the typical clichés that you so often hear such as the notion that arab women lead miserable lifes or that everyone is forced to be a Moslem. She believes that the journey can start with a single click and that the pulse of conversation is in the heart of the millions of people interacting via the web.

Todate she has received more than 1,2 million hits on youtube and the questions are diversified from “are you Michael Jordan’s wife…” to “do you have to wear a veil”. She strongly believes that people are too diversed to lumped together by simple stereo types tells about initiatives where arab and western children collaborate via the mail and how that remoes the fears as the commonalities and friendships get´s the upper hand. She alls feels strongly that her region must develop so that the next Sergey Brin or Larry Page (who is actually sitting right next to me as I write) can be spawned in the Arab world.

When asked about the (lack of) democracy her reply was that no country wants to be forced to governe in a certain way and that there must be a tailormade arab democracy and that it needs to Jordanian in Jordan and not American. Democracy is local and must be based on the present situation at hand without frog leaping the necessary evolutionary steps. She empazised that democratic principles are universal but that practise must be local and allowed to take the necessary time to become successful. In a very frank closing remark she shared that since she is a queen most information she gets is somewhat filtered and often flattering where as on the ned she gets the question unfiltered, uncensored, very critical and raw which she finds very refreshing. She also appreciated the loose dress code at Zeitgeist where the google code of CEO Eric Schmidt rules : at google you should wear…something” and the fact that since she started vloggin her kids thinks she is cool.

2 Responses

1. Yamamah says:

   May 20, 2008 at 00:18

   n other words, she and her husband are not going to give up power any time soon (couched in diplomatic terms by her of course) and secondly, as an Arab, believe me, there are just as many Arabs without first hand experience of ‘Western’ people who believe that all women in the West are sluts, the men are all drunks and everyone in the West hates Arabs. I get very tired of it all being one sided and Arabs being portrayed as ‘victims’ of the West all the time. Queen Rania is portraying a very one sided view of the situation and I would be grateful if she recognised that predjudices and stereotypes exist on BOTH sides it isn’t just Amreica with bad views about Arabs but also Arabs with bad views about America! She should be addressing this issue in the Middle East with Arabs too but she would not dare! many of you on this forum do not see Arabic press or news and don’t know the full story of how things are reported. Queen Rania has one face for the West and another for the East. Sorry to say but it is true.

   Reply
2. Veram says:

   May 21, 2008 at 09:50

   Yamamah, she explicitly recognised in her speech that prejudices and stereotypes exist on both sides:
   „When asked last year how much they knew about the opinions and beliefs of people who live in Muslim countries, 57 percent of Americans said “not much” or “not at all” – and that number has barely changed in five years. Even sadder to me – when asked what they admire most about the Muslim world, more than half of Americans answered “nothing” or “no opinion. Another poll last year asked people in five predominantly Muslim countries to review a series of character traits – words like “generous”… “selfish”… “tolerant”… “violent” – and to say if they associated any of these traits – whether good or bad – with Westerners. With just a few exceptions, majorities or large percentages of every Muslim public surveyed associated Westerners with all the negative traits – and not even one of the positives.“
   I do not see that she portrayed the Arabs as victims, but was just complaining the divide between both worlds and urged people to use all means (at this event she referred especially to the web) to bring people together to bridge the gulf between them. There is nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, she should be praised for it, IMO (like all the other members of the JRF propagating cross-cultural dialogue. This seems to be a Hashemite tradition and I hold this family in high regard for that). With her YouTube channel Queen Rania created a platform for young people where Arabs and Muslims like Americans and Europeans, Israelis and others can post all what they are thinking about each other. You can find here the hate of the Arabs (becoming apparent for everybody) in the same way as the prejudices and stereotypes of the other side (with a lot of other voices who are hoping for a better understanding). It is not such a bad idea to try to connect people around the world, who used not to know much about other cultures, and to start some sort of conversation between them.

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